Much in this substantive book will resonate with the reader after the concluding page is turned. Recommended.
Choice
The driving force behind Sound Unseen is Kane's argument for a historical, subject-centered theory of acousmatic sound-one that doesn't privilege a particular musical aesthetic, one that doesn't essentialize technologies, and one that admits a consideration of sounds emanating from the ... Read moreinteriority of the subjective consciousness...Kane's traversal of the transdisciplinary landscape is graceful and his approach offers a healthy perspective for the field of music research more generally.
Landon Morrison, Society for Music Theory
Kane uncovers a history of acousmatic sound independent of the legacy of Schaeffer and Pythagoras in order to articulate a rather distinct approach to the study of sound that transcends the divisions between musicology and sound studies...[Sound Unseen] is an essential text for scholars of the philosophy of music, electronic music, sound studies, and phenomenology.
Journal of Sonic Studies
Kane's methodology is multi-disciplinary, analysing a variety of cases.
Neural
Brian Kane...has in Sound Unseen written the definitive explanatory tract on the acousmatic.
The Wire
Sound Unseen is both successful and provocative precisely because of these constructive dissonances. It is a rare book that can put thinkers as diverse as P. F. Strawson or Bertrand Russell on the same page with Derrida or Heidegger, especially with Kane's unassuming clarity. Furthermore, Kane shows how music studies and philosophy can speak to each other when they are conceived as mutually supplemental
questions about sound infect philosophical questions, and thus a musical answer becomes a philosophical answer. Finally, Kane's tone deserves special mention, as it untangles knotty philosophical questions with remarkably accessible language: despite the density of his topics, his prose treads lightly and patiently, requiring little philosophical acumen yet rewarding those who may have it.Music Theory Spectrum
Sound Unseen represents a significant contribution to the field of voice studies...Brian Kane succeeds in developing a cogent and flexible explanatory paradigm for acousmatic sound that is clear without being reductive. Kane's account of acousmatic sound allows one to situate the practices of listening within their historical and cultural contexts...Scrupulously researched and conceptually virtuosic, Sound Unseen asks us to rethink the way we listen.
Journal of Musicological Research
Kane effectively decenters the privileged position of Schaefferian accounts in present discourse and opens the door to a broader survey of acousmatic listening practices spanning a variety of sociohistorical situations...Without doubt, Kane's book makes a significant contribution to existing literature on acousmatic sound, and it is necessary reading for anyone interested in exploring the fertile intersection of music, sound, and philosophy.
Music Theory Online
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